1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a performance apparatus that applies driving energy such as electricity to a sounding element acting member to cause sounding elements such as reeds to generate sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
A performance apparatus such as a music box type has hitherto been known which causes sounding elements such as reeds to generate sound by means of a driving device such as a solenoid coil, that acts upon or plucks the sounding elements, without using a barrel drum.
For example, a performance apparatus of this type has been proposed by the assignee of the present application (Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-079132). This performance apparatus is comprised of a rotating member acting as a sounding element acting member and provided with a plurality of driving nails in its outer periphery, and a swing arm with a flat coil, acting as an actuator. The flat coil is disposed to be located in a magnetic field that is generated. When the flat coil is energized, the swing arm is rotated. When a free end of the swing arm drives part of the driving nails of the rotating member to thus rotate the rotating member, which causes the other driving nails to pluck reeds to generate sound.
Further, another performance apparatus of this type has been proposed by the assignee of the present application, according to which part of driving nails of a rotating member as a sounding element acting member is engaged in and driven by a groove formed in a plunger acting as an actuator, which is driven to make reciprocating motions by a solenoid coil, to thereby pluck reeds in the same manner as in the first-mentioned performance apparatus. Alternatively, the solenoid coil may be used to reciprocate the plunger without using the rotating member, thus causing a driving part fixedly provided on the plunger to directly pluck the reeds.
However, the above proposed performance apparatuses have problems described below. That is, with these apparatuses, the maximum power is required when the reeds are plucked, i.e. when the sounding elements are acted upon. However, sufficient driving energy is uniformly applied over a wide range of the operating stroke of the actuator such as the swing arm or the plunger. Consequently, high power is consumed even in a range of the operating stroke in which large energy is not needed, and energy is thus wasted.
Another problem with the proposed performance apparatuses is that more driving energy than required is applied to the sounding element acting member such as the rotating member and the actuator so that the sounding element acting member and the actuator strongly engage or urgingly contact each other, to generate a loud mechanical noise.
Further, if it is configured such that a reciprocating member such as the plunger comes into contact with a stopper to define the end of the operating stroke of the reciprocating member, then a mechanical noise which is not negligible is generated due to the urging contact between the reciprocating member and the stopper.